Collapsible ladder design gives portability a leg-up

There’s no doubt ladders can be unwieldy things to carry around - so much so that the ladder-carrying painter has become a staple of slapstick comedy. Unfortunately carrying a ladder around in real life is generally much less hilarious, although often just as chaotic. A young Israeli design student, Itay Laniado, has come up with a collapsible design that makes getting a ladder from point A to point B so you can get to point C a whole lot easier.

Itay’s design relies on strap and ratchet system that allows the ladder to be collapsed to a height of a couple of inches. When assembled a strap is tightened using the ratchet and forms the second and fourth rungs of the five rung ladder. The remaining rungs are slotted into grooves on the side beams of the ladder and held in place by the tension of the strap – there are no screws or glue involved at all. The strap also acts as a handle when the ladder is folded up.

Judging by the pics the collapsible ladder won’t reach any great heights, which is probably just as well since even conventional ladders are hardly the most stable of devices - and this design looks even less so. But for space-starved apartment dwellers needing a ladder that will fit easily in a cupboard or slide under the bed it could still be a better option than a wonky chair for changing a light bulb or dispatching a ceiling-bound creepy crawly.

At the moment though, the collapsible ladder looks to be nothing more than a school project for Itay, who is currently studying at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.